Avoiding Defeat In The Inward War
AVOIDING DEFEAT IN THE INWARD WAR | Rev. Oluyinka Ahove | October 29, 2017
Bible Reading: Proverb 6
Bible Text: Luke 22: 54-62
Last time we said man has 3 components which are spirit, soul and body and the souls has 3 components also which are mind, will and emotion. We learnt that the mind is such a powerful instrument and who ever controls the soul of a man controls his life. This because it is with his soul that he makes choices and the choices determine his experience and destiny. In the soul also is the imagination. And the imagination is so powerful because it helps you to become who God has destined you to become. So what a man imagines in his mind continuously he will become it. Because the imagination forms a picture and whatever picture that you see in your imagination is the future you will feature in. So we need to be careful what we feed our mind with. It is not actually your spirit that does that. Your spirit is renewed and you have the sin there. So the problem is not from your spirit but from your soul. And in your soul there is a battle going on. The soul stands in the middle between you and your body. Your spirit receives info from the Holy Spirit and your soul processes it. Your thought comes from your soul. SO it is important who is ruling your soul. When you see the manifestations in the life of a man I don’t have to see the soul because the manifestation will tell me. All destiny decision are determined in your soul.
It is our imagination that dictates your openness to positive and negative things. If you imagine negatives that is what you will rise up to experience. What you can and have accomplished have to do with who is in charge of your imagination. So our life is a summary of what we have imagined. That is why we have to be careful what is controlling our imagination. Our life is just a summary: the choices we made, whether we stand or surrender….it is because of who is in charge of the mind.
James 3:17 tells us the wisdom of God is not sensual. It is pure and full of compassion and good fruits. So if your soul is not filled with the wisdom from above then it is filled with wisdom from earth which cannot deliver to you a life abundant. A carnal mind is a Christian who still lives according to the five senses which are what you can see touch or smell. So anyone being controlled or ruled by these are carnally minded. And the bibles say they cannot take delivery of the peace and life that comes from God. That shows there is a war going on in your mind. That’s where the fight is. The reason God wants to take control is so that His plan for man to rule the world is through his mind, by agreeing with God’s word. It’s about man expressing the creativity and ability of God which also comes from the soul. If you will enjoy God’s best be watchful of what you give your mind to.
Peter was bold and courageous and wanted to do all Jesus did. That tells us about the standing of Peter, his zeal for ministry, to see it accomplished. He believed, identified and invested in it.
Jesus said Satan had desired to sift Peter as wheat but that He has prayed that his faith failed not. Why would Jesus say when you are converted? Why would Jesus say that? Peter said Lord I am ready to go with thee even to prison and to death. But Jesus said I tell you the cock shall not cock crow before you deny that you know me. Before it gets to the point of prison you will deny me. We are talking about how to avoid our mind being defeated.
I kept asking where did Peter get it wrong because all that Jesus said Peter will do he did. I have come to see that people do not take to warning. Jesus never threatens. He warns people and tells you if you don’t heed the warning what he warned you about will happen. Now Jesus warned Peter that the devil is about to sift him, that the devil is about to change his focus to someone else. This is the fight in our mind. God wants to persuade you to believe that He is the way. But the devil wants to do the opposite. And this is the conflict causing the war in our mind.
When the bible talks about the heart it is not talking about your physical mind. In fact the Hebrew word describes heart as the subconscious mind and it is what is in your subconscious mind that you will follow. Remember Jesus said a man is not defiled what he takes in but what comes out of his heart. So what is in your subconscious controls what you do and how you act. The conscious mind receives information. Repetition and processing of that information is what takes it into your subconscious mind. What you see or hear repeatedly is what goes into the mind. When during a sudden threat of impending danger you shout Jesus help me it means it is Jesus that you have repeatedly received into your subconscious mind. All the negative social media information sinks into the subconscuious and then you act it. It is what you process in your mind.
What do you process?
The more your process an information the more it goes into your mind and the more you believe it and the more you begin to act it out. So you cannot be defeated inwardly and expect victory outside. That’s why David said let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto you. David was praying for proper alignment of his heart and the words of his mouth.
Now this is the problem Peter was having: the test of what he claims he believes. When Peter’s trial came he failed because what he was doing was not yet entered into his subconscious. How can Peter say I will die with you and then deny me thereafter? This is not in proper alignment. It is good to say some things when everything is fine it is what you do in the time of trial that shows what you have inside. When a man is in poverty it does not mean humility. Poverty has humiliated him. You never know a humble man until you give him power. There are people we thought are humble until they get money.
I remember a man who after he was prayed for and had some money suggested to the pastor to always stay by the door to shake them when they come in. He had no humility. What what he demonstrated before was the humiliation of lack.
Key Points To Note
- What you picture in your mind is what your mind will go to work to accomplish. This was the root cause of Peter’s problem. He pictured death and changed his mind and started denying Jesus. In the face of your own trials, how many times have you denied him? Anytime you do contrary to the word that you know you are denying Jesus. 1 John2:3 tells us if our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart. When your heart does not condemn us so we have confidence towards God(Faith) The reason your faith is not working is because there is a problem in your mind. When Peter said he will die for Jesus all was in his conscious mind. It has not entered into his subconscious. And the only way it will enter into your subconscious is through repetition. That is why the bible says faith comes by hearing. The reason you are afraid is that you have not yet replaced fear with courage in your subconscious. It is ok to be afraid but what is not ok is to be defeated by fear. That is why you have to continually feed your mind. When God speaks to your mind what He has spoken can be your greatest enemy. Because it will fight what is in your conscious mind. Receiving something once does not mean you have what it takes to clean out the old. The more you expose your mind to the word the stronger your subconscious become.
- Stop looking at where you are and start looking at where you are going. Peter took his eyes off. Wrong thinking mostly leads to misery. In Peter’s case, Jesus said you are going to miss it but you are also going to get up. So wrong thinking mostly leads to misery but not all the time. The good news is that no matter where you are you are going to make it. That is why coming to Jesus is key because with him there is no dead end. The cock is a blessing to Peter. If the cock did not crow he wouldn’t know he has denied Jesus. May we not continue sinning without knowing we are in sin. When the cockerel crowed Peter came to his senses. When Peter saw this he was filled with such remorse and repentant sorrow that we hardly see these days. It’s not that Peter didn’t love Jesus or care. But sometimes we are not prepared in our mind what life will bring our way. So he could not handle what was thrown at him. But he still did not leave Jesus. He still followed him from afar.
What do you feed your mind? What you feed your soul with determines your destiny.
